HVHZ Garage Doors Explained: Miami-Dade and Broward
Miami-Dade and Broward counties are Florida's High Velocity Hurricane Zone, and a garage door installed there must carry a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance (NOA). A door with only a Florida Product Approval, which is what the rest of the state uses, will not be permitted in the HVHZ, and retrofit bracing kits are not the accepted route there. An HVHZ door installed with the permit included runs $1,800 to $6,500.
What the HVHZ is
The Florida Building Code requires a garage door to be rated for the design wind pressure at the site. Across most of the state, that rating is shown by a Florida Product Approval, an FL number. Two counties are different.
Miami-Dade and Broward are the High Velocity Hurricane Zone, the HVHZ. The zone dates from the code rewrite after Hurricane Andrew in 1992, when the county found that most of the garage doors that failed had been the first thing to go, and that once the door went the roof followed. The HVHZ has its own product approval system, the Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance, and a garage door installed there needs one.
If you live in Miami-Dade County or Broward County, everything below applies to you. If you live in Palm Beach, Tampa Bay, Central Florida, Southwest Florida or North Florida, you are outside the zone, and the article that applies to you is Miami-Dade NOA vs Florida Product Approval.
What an NOA is
A Notice of Acceptance is Miami-Dade County’s approval of a specific product, from a specific manufacturer, tested to the county’s protocols. For a garage door, the NOA covers the door model, the sizes it is approved for, the design pressures it resists, and, for impact-rated doors, that it passed the large missile impact test. It also specifies how the door has to be installed: the track, the brackets, the fasteners and their spacing.
That last part matters more than people expect. An NOA door installed with the wrong track brackets or fewer lag screws than the NOA calls for is not an NOA installation, and the final inspection is where that gets caught. We install to the NOA sheet, not to habit.
The NOA number is on the factory label inside the door and on the permit. Photograph the label on installation day, because a faded label ten years from now is the difference between a door a wind mitigation inspector can verify and one they cannot.
Why a door approved elsewhere is not approved here
This is the question we get most often from people who moved to Kendall from Orlando, or who priced a door online.
A Florida Product Approval and a Miami-Dade NOA are two different approval systems with two different test protocols. A door with an FL number has been shown to meet the code for the pressures listed on its approval. That is what the rest of Florida uses. The HVHZ does not accept an FL number as proof for the HVHZ, because the zone’s requirements are its own.
Many doors from the major manufacturers carry both. The same steel door model may have an FL number for use in Tampa and an NOA for use in Hollywood, and it may be the same door. Or it may not: sometimes the HVHZ version has heavier struts, thicker steel, a different track, or more fasteners, and the price is different because the door is different.
So when a door is quoted for a Broward address, the question is not “is this door hurricane rated” but “what is the NOA number.” A quote that cannot answer that is a quote for the wrong door, and the building department will not permit it.
Wind-rated, impact-rated, and what the NOA covers
Every HVHZ door is wind-rated, meaning it resists the design pressure. Not every HVHZ door is impact-rated, meaning it was also tested against a large missile, the two by four fired at the door in the lab. Impact-rated is what most homeowners mean by “hurricane door,” and it is what most insurers mean by opening protection.
When you compare two NOA doors, ask what each NOA covers. The difference between wind-rated and impact-rated is explained in wind-rated vs impact-rated garage doors, and it changes both the price and what the door may do for your wind mitigation inspection.
Bracing kits in the HVHZ
Outside the zone, retrofit bracing kits with a Florida Product Approval are a real option for an older door. Inside the zone, the accepted route is a rated door. If your door in Pembroke Pines or Palmetto Bay is an older unrated one, the honest answer is that a kit is not the path, and a company selling one for an HVHZ address is either unaware of the rule or hoping you are. The full picture is in garage door hurricane bracing kits.
What it costs
| Door | Installed price, single door, permit included |
|---|---|
| Wind-rated steel with NOA | From $1,800 |
| Impact-rated steel with NOA | $1,800 to $6,500 |
| Impact-rated aluminum and glass with NOA | Toward the top of that range and above $8,000 for full view glass |
| Double door, 16 by 7, any of the above | Quoted, always above the single door price |
The published range for hurricane-rated door installation is $1,800 to $6,500, and every quote includes the permit fee and the filing. What moves a door within that range is size, steel gauge, insulation, windows, and whether it is impact-rated or wind-rated only. A door for a 1960s single-car garage in Hialeah with low headroom sits at the bottom. An insulated impact-rated double with windows for a three-car garage in Weston sits at the top.
Removal of the old door, new tracks, new springs and new hardware are part of the installation. The opener is not; if your opener is old, a new opener runs $275 to $600 and is often worth doing on the same day.
The permit
Replacing a garage door anywhere in Florida requires a building permit pulled by a licensed contractor, with the rating on the permit. In the HVHZ the permit records the NOA, the county inspects the installation, and the inspector checks the label and the attachment against the NOA. We pull the permit, and the fee is in the quote. What that process looks like is in garage door permits in Florida.
Doors from the 1990s rebuild
A lot of the HVHZ’s doors went in at once. Andrew rebuilt Homestead and much of Kendall in 1993 under the new code, and those doors are now more than thirty years old. The door itself may still be rated, but the springs, cables, hinges and bottom brackets are the age where salt air has done its work, and a rated door with a rusted bottom bracket is not the door that was tested.
If your door is from that era, a tune-up at $85 to $160 before June tells you whether the hardware is holding, and garage door rust in Florida humidity covers what to look for. When the hardware is gone and the door is thirty years old, the replacement conversation is usually about a new NOA door rather than another set of springs.
After a storm
When a door in the HVHZ fails in a storm, the replacement has to be an NOA door with a permit, and rated doors are in short supply for months after a major hurricane. Storm damage repair starts at $150 for assessment and securing the opening, and the replacement is quoted separately in writing, with the lead time stated. What to do in the first hours is in garage door storm damage: what to do.
Related reading
- Hurricane-rated garage door cost in Florida
- Prepare your garage door for a hurricane
- Best time to replace a garage door in Florida
- Prices
Related questions
Is Palm Beach County in the HVHZ?
No. The HVHZ is Miami-Dade and Broward. Palm Beach and the Treasure Coast still have high design pressures near the coast, but a door there needs a Florida Product Approval for the site's pressure rather than a Miami-Dade NOA.
My door has a Florida Product Approval. Can it be installed in Broward?
Not on that approval alone. In the HVHZ the permit records a Miami-Dade NOA, and the building department checks for it. Many doors carry both an NOA and an FL number; if yours has only the FL number, it is the wrong door for Broward.
Can I brace my old door instead of replacing it in Miami-Dade?
The accepted route in the HVHZ is a rated door. Bracing kits have Florida Product Approval in most of the state, but that is not the path the HVHZ uses. If you are in Miami-Dade or Broward, plan for a door with an NOA.
Is an NOA door the same as an impact door?
Not always. An NOA covers a door that passed Miami-Dade's testing for the pressures and, for impact-rated products, the large missile test. Ask which the NOA covers when you compare quotes, because two NOA doors can be rated for different things.
How do I know if my current door has an NOA?
Look for the factory label on the inside of an end stile or the top section. It names the manufacturer, the model and the NOA number. If there is no label, check whether the county has a permit on file for the door. No label and no permit usually means an unrated door.
